BOOK III. 642. tacks Beb banburh. As ferocious as he was daring and restless, Penda caused the head and limbs of Oswald to be severed from his body and exposed on stakes." He proceeded through Northumbria with devastations, and finding himself unable to carry the royal Penda at- city of Bebbanburh by storm, he resolved to destroy it by fire. He demolished all the villages in its vicinity, and encompassing the place with a great quantity of the wood and thatch of the ruins, he surrounded the city with flames. But the wind, which was raising the fiery shower above the city walls, suddenly shifted. The element of destruction, most fatal to man, was driven back from its expected prey on those who had let it loose, and the sanguinary besiegers, in panic or in prudence, abandoned the place. 10 The Northumbrians afterwards made Oswy, the brother of Oswald, their king. 643. Destroys the kings of East Anglia. PENDA's next warfare was against Wessex. Cenwalh, the son of Cynegils, had offended him by repudiating his sister. He invaded and expelled him; and Cenwalh was an exile in Wessex for three years, before he could regain his crown. 11 In the year after Oswald's death, the victorious Penda turned his arms against East Anglia, then in a state of unambitious and inoffensive tranquil. lity. But this disposition only tempted the ambition of the Mercian. In this country, Sigebert had succeeded the son of Redwald, whom at one time fearing, he had fled into France for safety, and there 9 Bede, lib. ii. c. 12. Oswy, his successor, removed and interred them, ibid. But the Saxon Chronicler mentions that his hands were at Bebbanburh in his time, p. 31. They were kept as relics. 10 Ibid. lib. iii. c. 16. 11 Ibid. lib. iii. c. 7. Flor. Wig. 237. Sax. Chron. 52. VIII. 643. became a Christian, and attached himself to study. CHAP. Attaining the crown of East Anglia, he founded that school in his dominions, which has not only the distinction of being the first, after that at Canterbury, which the Anglo-Saxons established to teach reading and the literature to which it leads, but also of being supposed to have formed the original germ of the university of Cambridge. 12 Sigebert built also a monastery; and preferring devotion, letters, and tranquillity to state, he resigned his crown to his kinsman Ecgric, who was reigning in a part of East Anglia, assumed the tonsure, and retired into the monastery which he had founded. On Penda's invasion, the East Anglians, fearful lest their reigning monarch should be unequal to repel his superior numbers, drew Sigebert by force from his monastery, and compelled him to head their army, from a belief that it would prosper under the guidance of so good a man. He led them to the shock, but, disclaiming all weapons of destruction, he used only a wand of command. His skill was excelled by the veteran ability of Penda. Both 12 Bede's account is, that desiring to imitate what he had seen well arranged in Gaul, he instituted, with the help of Felix from Kent, a school in which youth should be instructed in letters. Felix gave him teachers and masters from Kent, lib. iii. c. 18. Dr. Smith has given a copious essay on the question, whether this was the foundation of the university at Cambridge, and preceded that of Oxford in antiquity. He considers himself to have shown "feliciter," that the school of Sigebert was planted at Cambridge; but admits that the posterior account, which Peter Blessensis has left of Joffrid's teaching near Cambridge, after the Norman conquest, is an "objectio validissima," which can hardly be answered. On the whole, he thinks, that if he has not identified the Cambridge university with the school of Sigebert, he has at least shown, that the fables about Alfred's founding Oxford are to be entirely rejected. App. No. 14. p. 721–740. BOOK the East-Anglian princes fell, and their army was . III. 654. Oswy. Oswin killed. THE ambition and the success of Penda were not yet terminated. In 654, he marched into East Anglia, against Anna, the successor of Sigebert and Ecgric, and destroyed him.14 His crime was unpardonable in the eyes of Penda. He had hospitably received Cenwalch. 15 In that warlike age, when every man was a soldier, no conquest was permanent, no victor secure. Penda lived to exhibit an instance of this truth. When Oswy assumed the government of Bernicia on the death of Oswald, he placed Oswin, son of Osric, the kinsman of the applauded Edwin, over Deira. Oswin, of a tall and graceful stature, distinguished himself for his humanity and generosity, but could not allay the jealousy of Oswy, who soon became eager to destroy the image he had set up. Oswin shrunk from a martial conflict, and concealed himself, with one faithful soldier, Tondhere, his foster-brother, in the house of Earl Hunwald, his assured friend. This man betrayed him to Oswy, and suffered him to be murdered. 16 Oswin had given to his betrayer the possessions he enjoyed. The soldiers of Oswy, whom he guided, entered the house in the night. Tondhere offered himself to their fury, to save his lord and friend; but had only the consolation to perish with him. " 13 Bede, lib. iii. c. 18. 14 Flor. Wig. 240. Sax. Chron. 23. Anna was the son of Eni, of royal descent. His brother Adelhere acceded on Anna's fall; but in his second year was slain by the army of Oswy. The third brother, Edewold, a pious prince, succeeded. On his death, Adulph, the son of Anna, was crowned. Hist. Elien. MSS. Cott. Lib. Nero. A. 15.; and 1 Dugdale, 88. 15 Bede, lib. iii. cap. 18. and c.7. 16 Ibid. lib. iii. c. 14. VIII. 655. Oswy was, however, destined to free the Anglo- CHAP. Saxon octarchy from Penda. When this aged tyrant was preparing to invade his dominions, he sued long and earnestly for peace in vain. At the age of eighty, the pagan chief, encouraged by his preceding successes, still courted the chances and the tumult of battle. Rejecting the negotiations repeatedly offered, he hastened with the veterans whom he had long trained, to add Oswy to the five monarchs whose funeral honours recorded him as their destroyer. With trembling anxiety Oswy met him, with his son Alfred, and a much inferior force; but the battle is not always given to the strong, nor the race to the swift. Penda had filled up the measure of his iniquities, and Providence released the country from a ruler, whose appetite for destruction age could not diminish. could not diminish. He rushed into the battle with Oswy confident of victory, but the issue was unexpectedly disastrous to him. Penda, with thirty commanders, perished before the Penda's enemy, whose greatest strength they had subdued, and whose present feebleness they despised. The plains of Yorkshire witnessed the emancipation of England. 18 Oidilwald, the son of Oswald, was with the forces of Penda, but not desirous to assist him. When the battle began, he withdrew from the conflict, and waited calmly for the event in a distant position. This secession may have produced a panic among the troops of Penda, or by occupying the jealous attention of part of them, 18 Sax. Chron. 33. Bede, lib. iii. c. 24. Winwidfield, near Leeds, was the theatre of the conflict. Camden, Gib. 711.- Bede does not explicitly assert that Penda had three times the number of forces, but that it was so reported. fate. III. BOOK diminished the number which acted against Oswy. The principal leaders of the Mercians fell in defending Penda, and the country happening to be overflowed, more perished by the waters than by the sword. 655. Peada in troduces into Mercia. By the death of Oswin the hexarchy returned ; by the death of Penda, a pentarchy appeared; for the kingdom of Mercia was so weakened by the result of this battle, that it fell immediately into the power of Oswy, who conquered also part of Scotland. PENDA, during his life, had appointed one of his sons, Peada, to be king of that part of his dominions and conquests which were called Middle Angles; a youth of royal demeanour and great merit. Peada Christianity had visited Oswy in Northumbria, and solicited his daughter, Alchfleda, in marriage. To renounce his idols, and embrace Christianity, was made the condition of her hand. As his father was such a determined supporter of the ancient Saxon superstition, and was of a character so stern, the princess must have inspired her suitor with an ardent affection to have made him balance on the subject. Peada submitted to hear the Christian preachers; and their three great topics, the resurrection, the hope of future immortality, and the promise of a heavenly kingdom, inclined him to adopt the religion which revealed them. The persuasions of Alfred, the eldest and intelligent brother of the princess, who had married his sister Cyneburga, completed the impression. He decided to embrace Christianity, even though Alchfleda should be refused to him. He was baptised with all his earls and knights, who had attended him, and with their families, and took four priests home with him |